This article traces the media representation of nursing strikes in the United States through evolving newspaper, television, online news, and social media coverage of three historical case studies: the nationally-record-setting nurses’ strikes in 1984 (Minneapolis-St. Paul), 2010 (Minneapolis-St. Paul), and 2014 (Kaiser Permanente hospitals, California). Over time, American nursing unions grew increasingly diverse by gender, socio-economic, and racial/ethnic composition. At the same time, media coverage of nurses’ strikes remained dependent upon well-worn gendered narratives of nursing as essentialized female caring that undermined the evolving aims of their collective professional and labour interests. Nursing unions initially benefited from their depiction as young, mostly white, middle-class women seeking fairness for their relatively low-paid work. However, deep contradictions persist in the public understanding of gender, labour, and professionalism in nursing, which have been compounded rather than clarified by its static and often nostalgic representation of nurses in the media.

本文通过不断发展的报纸、电视、在线新闻和社交媒体对三个历史案例研究的报道，追溯了美国护士罢工的媒体代表性：1984 年创全国纪录的护士罢工（明尼阿波利斯-圣保罗） 、2010 年（明尼阿波利斯-圣保罗）和 2014 年（加利福尼亚州凯撒医疗机构医院）。随着时间的推移，美国护理工会在性别、社会经济和种族/民族构成方面变得越来越多样化。与此同时，媒体对护士罢工的报道仍然依赖于陈旧的性别叙事，将护士视为基本的女性关怀，破坏了她们集体职业和劳工利益不断发展的目标。护士工会最初受益于他们对年轻，主要是白人的描述，中产阶级妇女为她们相对低薪的工作寻求公平。然而，公众对性别、劳动和护理专业精神的理解仍然存在深刻的矛盾，媒体中护士的静态和经常怀旧的表现使这些矛盾更加复杂而不是澄清。